My sister and I took advantage of the empty house to blast some of One Direction’s new music. Our parents had gone grocery shopping, dragging our little brother along with them. So, since we had the entire house to ourselves, we were having a mini-concert in our living room, and jumping on the couch. Totally normal, right?

My sister continued to scream the lyrics as she ran to the kitchen to grab some juice. I collapsed on the couch laughing as she came back in shaking her butt to the music. I turned the music off mid-song just as she started “singing” again.

“Hey!” she screamed at me, trying to get the remote back to turn it on again.

“Stop! The phone’s ringing, dummy!” I screamed back.

“Hello?” I said into the phone, completely out of breath.

“Um, hello? Is this a Ms. Elizabeth Greene?” a deep voice said.

“Yes, this is her.”

“Hello Ms. Greene, this is Detective Shultz from the Rochester Police Department. Are you and your sister able to come to my office? I have something I need to discuss with you.”

“Uh, yeah, let me just leave a note for my parents, and we’ll be right there.”

“Umm… okay.” He said, sounding odd. He hung up.

Hmm. That was weird. Oh well.

“Maddie we have to go to the police station,” I yelled as I scribbled a note. I was confused, I didn’t know what was going on, but I was scared. Had something happened to my parents? That was my biggest fear in the world. My mom was my best friend, I couldn’t lose her. Calm down, Liz, it’s probably just something your idiot neighbor did again, don’t jump to conclusions.

I snapped out of my thoughts as my sister walked in and groaned.

“Is it something John did again? I swear that kid is mental,” Maddie whined.

I should probably fill you in about John. John is a 9 year old kid that lives two houses down from us. He is constantly doing stupid things in the neighborhood. Last week, he stole the next door neighbor’s cat and hid it in their garage. He was a messed up kid, and the police frequently called us to the station to answer questions about his latest crimes.

“I have no clue, but it was a different guy this time, and he sounded like it was… personal. I don’t know, I’m probably overthinking it,” I said.

“Let’s just go and figure it out okay? Can we pick up Clayton on the way?”

“Sure,” I groaned. She knew I hated her boyfriend, but she swore he was an amazing guy.

When I finally pulled into the parking lot of the police station, my nerves were on edge. I had Maddie call our parents to let them know where we were, and their phones kept going straight to voicemail. That made me nervous. They always had their phones on them, had something happened?

We walked into the police station and we were directed to a small interrogation room. A tall man walked in, who said that he was Detective Shultz. He shooed Clayton out of the room, saying he needed to talk to just Maddie and I. This wasn’t about John…

“Girls, I regret to have to tell you that your parents and your brother have passed away. It happened about a half hour ago. They were in an accident. A drunk driver was in the wrong lane, and smashed into your parents’ car head on. All three were killed on impact. I’ll give you two some time, and then I’ll come back and we can talk about a couple a things.”

He left the room, and my sister collapsed into my arms. I couldn’t believe it. I felt like I was in a horrible nightmare. I just wanted to wake up. But this was real. My family was gone. What were we going to do? What’s going to happen now?

Detective Shultz came back into the room. We blindly agreed to funeral preparations, and other formalities.

“Now, since you’re 18 Liz, you will become the legal guardian of Maddie. All of your parents’ assets have been left to you, so I think you guys will be alright. You are free to go home now.”

But what is home without half of my family? I thought as Clayton drove us home.